Latinos Are Ready to Battle Climate Change if EPA Will Include Them in the Fight

Earlier this month, I presented comments to the Environmental Protection Agency as part of EPA’s Washington, D.C., listening session on the forthcoming Carbon Pollution Standards for existing power plants. As both a native New Mexican and a Diversity Fellow at Environmental Defense Fund, I can share a perspective that too often is not represented in the debate over climate change.

I was raised bilingual and bicultural in New Mexico, the state with the highest percentage of Latino population at nearly 50 percent. In addition to working as an environmental advocate, I am also a member of the rising Latino generation, the fastest growing young demographic in the country. Fifty thousand Latinos turn 18 every month. To put this in perspective, Pew Research Center estimates that by mid-century, Latinos will comprise nearly 30 percent of the U.S. population.

When I was 18, I had just graduated from high school with several years of soccer at Santa Fe’s 7,000-foot elevation under my belt. I was on my way to college and would go on to complete a master’s of science in an interdisciplinary environmental sciences program.

The reality is, you can’t play soccer safely at high elevation when you have asthma, and you certainly can’t concentrate properly on your schoolwork when you can’t breathe. This is why it’s incumbent on EPA to regulate carbon pollution from power plants with the strongest possible rules. Our Latino communities need EPA to curb carbon pollution. Our lives are depending on it.

When one community bears a greater share of these burdens than do others, the issues transcend health and climate concerns and become ones of social and environmental justice. I testified to EPA because Latino communities are disproportionately affected by carbon pollution and climate change. My hope and expectation is that EPA will issue the strongest possible standards in order to safeguard the futures of communities like my own. The vast majority of our Latino communities support government action to limit carbon pollution and “more energy from clean sources,” so when it comes to creating strong rules, EPA has Latino support.

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President Obamas climate plan would have a chilling effect on the economy, not the environment. Here are 11 problems with the plan he outlined this week.

1. Higher energy bills. The Environmental Protection Agencys carbon dioxide regulations on new and existing power plants would be huge blow to American families. It costs more to heat and cool your home, to cook your meals, to light your home. If the Administration phases out coal, then before 2030, electricity prices would increase 20 percent and cause a family of four to lose more than $1,000 in annual income.

2. Lost jobs. Higher energy prices ripple through the economy. Businesses face higher operating costs and pass those costs on to the consumer. Heritage found that significantly reducing coal, as the Presidents climate plan would do, would destroy 500,000 jobs by 2030.

3. Higher natural gas prices would stomp the manufacturing renaissance. Cheap natural gas has led to a manufacturing resurgence in the United States. Both coal and natural gas are important, reliable sources of electricity generation, and artificially shrinking the supply of coal would put upward pressure on natural gas prices. Analysis from The Heritage Foundation (in a forthcoming paper) finds that significantly reducing coals share in Americas energy mix would, before 2030, raise natural gas prices by 42 percent. The Ob